Bohemia Interactive’s open world online zombie game DayZ may still be in its alpha stage but it’s more than a resounding success. Within four weeks of its release, it managed to achieve 1 million purchases from Steam Early Access users and that number shows no sign of slowing any time soon.
In conversation with Polygon, creator Dean Hall said that even with the game in its alpha stage, its huge sales are a sign that indie games are serious business.
“The concept of Kickstarter and early access games is not without problems, though, and I think we’ve yet to see the full extent of that. But what this says to me is that gamers crave real creativity in their games along with engagement in the process, and that the ‘indie’ way is not just restricted to small projects in fringe games. It’s big and serious business now.
“Previously with the mod I think traditional publishers could write DayZ off as a kind of anomaly. It was possible to think that this would not fully translate to the retail game in terms of real sales. This has got to be a ‘shots fired’ moment for those in the traditional publishing model, and their investors.”
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